TL;DR
The ssv.network DAO Multi-Sig Committee purchased an expired domain, ssvnetwork.eth, for approximately 7.9 ETH, which was approximately 16,000 USD value. The reason for the purchase was to prevent potential PR risks and other related risks related to the domain being purchased by someone potentially malicious. The Multi-Sig Committee exercised its emergency powers under the Detrimental Situation Procedure outlined in [DIP-2] Multi-Sig Committee. The committee is now publishing the use of its emergency powers to the community.
Context
On the 25th of January 2024, the ssv.network DAO Multi-Sig Committee exercised its emergency powers under the Detrimental Situation Procedure as outlined in [DIP-2] Multi-Sig Committee.
Event history
The ssvnetwork.eth ENS domain is a parent domain to the mainnet.ssvnetwork.eth domain. As such the parent domain had complete control over the mainnet.ssvnetwork.eth sub-domain, which is the owner of the ssv.network snapshot space. As such these domains were important to the DAO from a governance and PR perspective.
When the ssvnetwork.eth domain was created over two years ago, the initial owner of the ssvnetwork.eth domain was the Core Team of the ssv.network DAO. Due to the lack of use at that point in time, the ssv.network Core Team has not renewed the domain. Subsequently, the domain was renewed by an individual who was not part of the Core Team. This individual also did not renew the ssvnetwork.eth domain. During the final days of its registration and subsequently during the grace period for domain renewal, the ssv.network DAO has received two bug reports notifying the DAO of the impending of the domain, as well as, of the reverse auction pending the expiry of the grace period of the domain renewal.
Event deliberation
On Tuesday, the 22nd of January 2024, the ssv.network DAO coordinated a call with core contributors of the ssv.network Network. The Core Team noted that the potential PR risk and other related risks are quite low for someone purchasing the domain for a high price and acting potentially maliciously. The Core Team suggested that the reverse auction price for the purchase of the ssv.network.eth should not cost more than 5.000 USD denominated in ETH. However, core contributors from the DAO disagreed, noting that the risk is much higher and that the expired domain should be purchased as soon as possible.
Event resolution
In reaction to the above, the ssv.network Multi-Sig has voted with 8/9 to declare this situation as a Detrimental Situation as described in [DIP-2] Multi-Sig Committee. Therefore, the Multi-Sig attained the power to execute the transaction to purchase the expired domain. The ssv.network Multi-Sig executed the transaction on the 25th of January 2024 to purchase the domain for approximately 7.9 ETH (TX 325) which was approximately 16.000 in USD value. Presently, the ssv.network.eth domain is owned by the ssv.network DAO Multi-Sig wallet and if not renewed, will expire on January 25th, 2025.
The DAO was tasked to implement measures to prevent this from happening again.
In line with [DIP-2] Multi-Sig Committee, the ssv.network DAO Multi-Sig Committee is publishing the use of its emergency powers to the community.